Archive for Mar 28, 2012

Before you call Martha Stewart boring and out of touch with today's young, hip generation, check this out - the queen of home decor is making a special guest appearance in one of the most popular social games from Zynga, CastleVille. The game boasts 26 million active monthly users, and this is the first time it has received a celebrity endorsement. Not exactly the kind of celebrity you'd expect to carry that title.

Sony has decided to pull a couple of downloadable PSP games from the PlayStation Vita version of the PlayStation Store because hackers have managed to exploit code contained within. The affected games has vulnerablilities that allowed the hackers to run homebrew applications on the Vita, something Sony has been extremely vocal about banning. So as expected, company bigwigs were not happy about this.

This week the developers at Imangi Studios have come under fire after releasing their cult-classic iOS hit Temple Run for Android because it does not work with older devices. The problem actually lies specifically in a couple of processor sets created for Android over two years ago: Arm v6 and Arm v7 - so what will owners of these low-end devices do if they want to play the greatest grave-robbing game on mobile? They've got to head to the links we've got here, of course, over to the XDA Developers, the folks who fix all your offbeat Android ails!

Facebook may be ready to hold its initial public offering in May, according to a source familiar with the matter. The company recently asked firms to stop the trading of its privately held shares in the secondary market, a sign that it's trying to eliminate any valuation churns that might complicate its IPO.

This week the developers are really coming in hot with the Retina Display-ready applications and games for the new iPad, all of them having had plenty of time to upgrade their wares in the first couple of weeks since the device was released. Though a handful of developers had apps ready and waiting for the dropping of the iPad with its powerful new display, some second-wave heroes, like Rovio in this case, are bringing the fury with intensely well-selling games like Angry Birds: Space HD. Have a peek at this best of the best list and forever hold your pixels!

Members of both the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament have agreed this week to create lowered price caps on mobile data roaming charges. This will have an adverse affect on how willing business users will be to using their mobile phones when traveling from state to state and country to country, and may very well tip international governments to look into similar price-fixing for mobile carriers in their jurisdictions as well. New rules will be put into effect for the whole of the European Union once Parliament as a whole approves the deal, this expected soon with implementation set for July 1st.

Verizon announced today that it will be launching a new 4G LTE mobile hotspot on April 12. The device is called the Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4620L and will be available through Verizon's website and stores as well as through Best Buy for $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year service agreement.

Despite talks of tough economic times, Apple's products, which usually come with premium price tags, continue to be popular in American households. According to a CNBC survey, half of the households in the US own at least one Apple product, be that an iPod shuffle or a full blown Mac desktop computer. This ratio translates to about 55 million homes.

Gadget bloggers tend to share a few key traits, and one of those is an inability to resist high-end hardware. Super-fast processors, hi-res screens and next generation features get our blood rising. But we sometimes get blinded by our desire for specs, and all too often we ignore the high price that these features come with. Let's take a step back and examine the need, or lack thereof, for some of the capabilities of the latest round of smartphones.